[seenmostofit]

We have reached the end of the map. Time to make up another one. Good bye Mike. We love ya, can't wait for the next book.

http://www.collapsenet.com/blogs/entry/ ... -or-perish

[Sixstrings]

Hm.. sounds well thought-out, and generous:

Effective today I resign as President and Chief Executive Officer of Collapsenet.
Effective today I will receive no further income from the company, my last pay having come at the end of April.
Effective today I return 35% of the 55% of shares I was allotted at incorporation to the company to be redistributed among those who have built the company.
Effective today, I relinquish all control over and responsibility for the editorial content on this site. Effective today, I am no longer involved in the operations of the company.

The company, relieved of my salary, has a breather financially.
http://www.collapsenet.com/blogs/entry/ ... -or-perish

He sounds like a good guy. A lawyer wouldn't have advised he give all that up, it is his company after all he has a right to his shares. Quite unusual for someone to just give that over to the employees (maybe some are partners / co-founders, still he's giving up stock).

You know what, they need a venture capital guy. If Facebook is worth $100 billion and silly flash games are worth a billion, collapsenet should be able to get funding. It actually is a new innovative idea. A social media site for doomer types combining news with social features, as years goes on doomers are becoming mainstream (permaculture, energy issues, climate change, look at Nat Geo they have a whole series called Doomsday Preppers).

[SeaGypsy]

Looks like the captain jumping ship before it slams into something to me. Like C.net owes someone a lot of $?

[seenmostofit]

You know what, they need a venture capital guy. If Facebook is worth $100 billion and silly flash games are worth a billion, collapsenet should be able to get funding. It actually is a new innovative idea. A social media site for doomer types combining news with social features, as years goes on doomers are becoming mainstream (permaculture, energy issues, climate change, look at Nat Geo they have a whole series called Doomsday Preppers).

Perhaps they did try a venture capital fund? You can just see the business model questions though, "So Mr Ruppert, you want us to give you $100 million in start up capital so you can build a really cool website, dependent on the www, which uses untold quantities of fossil fuels, so you can tell everyone that the world is going to collapse, including the web, because we are running out of fossil fuels, sometime in the near future? And you want to pay us back with...happy thoughts?"

He does make it sound like he is giving up something of value. The clue is here I bet....

"As the economy deteriorated a great many loyal members wrote to us in sadness that they could no longer afford even $10 a month."

Reading between the lines, it doesn't require a genius to notice that if you take this piece, "no longer afford even $10 a month" and substitute, "no longer find $10 a month worth of value", it is a wonderful, all encompassing explanation when you then put it within reach of this statement: "At the same time, while I was working seven days a week, it was essential that I be paid for that work. When we started the company, two eventful years ago, the board of directors approved a starting salary for me based upon what I needed to cover rent and essentials."

At the end of the day, it is always about the money, isn't it? Whether you are a wall street bankster or someone just looking for a way to keep the gravy train going. Good luck with the book Mike. May you never have to lift a finger in real work the rest of your life, may your supporters continue to flood your coffers with paypal cash like manna from the heavens, may your beer glass remain ever filled, you are the Cassandra of your time, unappreciated, unloved, wandering the earth just looking for a way to cover rent and essentials. Some of us call that a job, but you are a more highly evolved being, and deserve better than that. May your radio show continue to do well, may your music career take flight, may your conspiracies be never ending. God Speed.

[efarmer]

Chicken Little had aspirations, but not being a big breasted hen, nor a strutting
rooster that could peck as good as he could crow, he became chicken nuggets.

Mike on late night AM introduced me to Peak Oil and I find it helpful in my life
to be more conscious, but the profit taking or betting credibility on the timing
of something so manipulated, obsfucated, malleable by technology, and downright
loathed by those who can and will, kick the can, is volunteering a one legged man to join an ass kicking contest and hoping he moves smoothly.

I was in the bus station the other day, and a guy walked up to me and opened his overcoat and it was lined with small circular objects. He said:

"Psst, you want to buy a Mayan calendar, they are just about to roll over and
be good as new in December!" I asked about the Solstice and he said:

"Solstice, schmolstice, get one now or pay double next year when they are
good for the full cycle again."

Hope Mike finds a place to relax, enjoy the good things he has done, and
quits sweating that ignorance and greed are universal constants.

The world as we know it will end when most of the energy and other human
troubles are solved and Gaia simply has a bad spell, gets a bug up her cosmic
ass, and decides to trade us in for a cute little planet that matches her galactic
shoes and handbag. I will be in the refund line with an armload of broken Chinese
tools at Walmart and will sigh that Wal-Mart finally beat me on my garden tools,
and that I do not have to pull my spuds out of the earth with cheap shit tools.

[Daniel_Plainview]

IMO, this is a deliberate marketing strategy on Ruppert's part to bring in new blood and reinvigorate Collapsenet, while simultaneously affording him personal time to write a book, plant a garden, travel, and buy a puppy dog.

Then, when the timing is right, and when the signs of collapse are much more obvious, Ruppert will return under new steam, and announce his new message with the roar of a lion.

This same marketing strategy has been done in the past (the "return" of "Classic Coke"), with measurable success.

[roccman]

CN is farming email addresses from PO sites to increase membership.

Bullshit

"getting the word out" is code for selling doom. don't look so desperate CN. fact is - there is very little if anything CN offers that other FREE sites don't already have.

here's the ANON email/solicitation going around:

Hello Doomer,
You have been added as a User to CollapseNet by an Administrator.
This e-mail contains your username and password to log in to http://www.collapsenet.com/
Username: Doomer
Password: "getting the word out is code for selling doom"
Please do not respond to this message as it is automatically generated and is for information purposes only."

[efarmer]

I would love to see a Collapsenet prospectus wherein the standard "forward looking statement" disclaimer would appear. Not being so equipped, I shall attempt to write one
possible statement for humorous frivolity:

Definition: forward-looking statement
A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. Discussions of these statements typically include words such as estimate, anticipate, project, and believe.

efarmer's whack at at such a thing:

It is our estimation that our forecasts of horrible events, dire consequences, and
places where one will find themselves where they do not fit, thrive, nor wish to
be and have spent a lifetime attempting to avoid, are on the conservative side as
to make our stock certificates an undervalued and conservative investment in oblivion
and absolute doom. We anticipate the forces at work to drive our business model,
namely Greed, Ignorance, and Exponential Growth augmented by the drive to procreate
and consume to any palpable limits or consequences, are sound and will deliver a
handsome return and win for the savvy investor who is betting on his fellow man to
project that he shall lose, in fact lose big, and showing a lot of ass, tears, sweat, and buying MRE's they cannot afford and in fact will find they cannot eat either.

Therefore we believe our stock to be a prudent, conservative, and promising investment
that we firmly believe, and ask that you believe, has a very low risk, but a very real risk
that is proportional to the potential and we believe reliable profits. If we plotted our
stock value exposure exploits and threats model in a circular or "pie chart" fashion, one
can see the threat slice is a little sliver that is not even one fork wide if the pie is scaled
to knife and fork proportions (in truth our pie is virtual and the scaling is simply for the investor experience and communications).

This thin and nasty little "threat slice" to our otherwise delicious and profitable pie,
is stuffed with nasty things like, human collaboration, demand destruction, scientific
advances, and dumb human luck. Obviously this is an inedible slice of pie, albeit a small
sliver, and we are going to try not to bake this "threat slice" into the next pie we make
to serve you, our valued potential investor.

[EnergyUnlimited]

This situation sounds much different than LATOC, but one cannot resist to compare these two.

[seenmostofit]

This situation sounds much different than LATOC, but one cannot resist to compare these two.

A comparison between the LATOC implosion and Mike's 2006 implosion is more reasonable. His most recent walkaway looks more amicable. And related to what Mike thinks he deserves for his "expenses" and whatnot.

[Armageddon]

I think MR is cracking up. I heard him on C2C last night.

[Daniel_Plainview]

I think MR is cracking up. I heard him on C2C last night.

Here he is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4KkqWE1a48 (audio only)

(Ruppert begins at 39:20)